18 Sunday

Wow – we got more culture than we expected today! A Sunday in the Bahamas near the holidays seemed a great time to visit a local church. We had the spectrum of experiences today – 1) at Spanish Wells this morning the Methodist church was attended by almost exclusively anglo (their term) Bahamians. It was “Methodist” for sure – calm, orderly, with organ, piano and choir. They sang lovely Christmas carols, and had a soloist – a gentleman in the 80’s that was amazing. Then 2) tonight we visited a church in Harbour Island. We had understood it to be a special 7pm Christmas service with singers from Nassau. Turns out it was a birthday celebration for a 70yr old pastor on the island. It was evangelical, hands waving, dancing, cheering and music louder than a rock concert! The black congregation loved the music, and we did too – except the volume level that had Henry plugging his ears. Mike couldn’t resist his decibel level app and the sound level was far in the “red zone.” The congregation was very welcoming, and also understanding of Henry’s ears as we left early – they were settling in for a long night of dancing!

We are so tired tonight but it’s no wonder when I sit here and think about what we did today. Sunrise paddle boarding in calm weather – even Emma got courageous enough to try it on her own. Dolphins in the anchorage got the excitement level up a bit too! Then we had to rush through showers to get to church, then moved the boat again in the afternoon.

At 1pm we had booked a local pilot named Captain Kirt to take us through the Devil’s Backbone. It is tricky navigation from Spanish Wells, over the north end of Eleuthera and down to Harbour Island. Well, Kirt called us up this morning and said “are you still going to church?” Yes. “I’d like to pick you up and take you there”. Such a lovely gentleman. He must have been in his mid to late 70’s. He met us at the dinghy dock and saved us a 30min walk to get to church, then sat with us as well. This afternoon, it was nice to talk with him the 2.5hrs it took to navigate the reefs. He is 3^rd generation of family from Spanish wells. So much history. He even gave Henry and Emma a quick “go fast” ride in his boat at the end of the piloting trip.

With settled weather and settled routines, today was a milestone: we pulled out the table and had dinner in the cockpit while the sunset put on a show. Was our first night eating meat from a can – Pork turned into Pulled pork sandwhiches. They disappeared off everyone’s plate so I assume it was a success! Would highly recommend the Keystone brand. I’m putting it on my camping list! Now we’re off to sleep, anchored at Dunmore Town, the only town on Harbour Island. Nearby marina restaurants make it a little noisy and it’s bouncy with so many skiffs flying by at high speeds (lacking a “no wake” zone here). Might relocate to a quieter place nearby for tomorrow.

Day 21 – Saturday – The winds have subsided

Another long night rocking around in 30 knots of wind with higher gusts and then, finally, it suddenly stopped this morning. Calm and peaceful sunrise. Cloudy and cool. A good morning for endless rounds of chocolate chip pancakes followed by creating our Christmas ‘tree’ for the wall. We got a tour of the neighbour’s boat (a Gulfstar 44) – nice couple who had a gentle grandparent approach to our 2 visiting kids. Then H&E were quick to want to join back up with Eden and Celeste. Lots of games, playing on the boom, sharing kid stories. So proud of Henry. When we first anchored on Wednesday beside them – he froze and refused to even go on the dinghy trip to say hello when we didn’t know them at all. He still has his introverted “I want to go hide” instinct at the thought of meeting new people. But didn’t take long for him to realize how nice they were and how much fun was to be had. You would never guess that we had only met Bliss 4 days ago – the kids are fast friends!

All 4 boats in the harbor all moved to Spanish wells (1hr motor) this afternoon now that the weather is settled. Fun walk around town, then back to the boats at sunset for a typical boat evening of socializing. Appetizer-snack-dinner ensued while we baked up some sugar cookies. Kids had a fun time icing and decorating. Lots of stories to be shared by parents as rums from various locals were shared.

Tomorrow we all go different ways. The goodbyes begin…but we hope to meet up again in the Exumas down the road….

Day 20 – A windier day in the Bahamas – Friday – 12/21/18

Finally we had a much needed ‘down day’. Some rough sleeping last night in 30+ knots of wind with lashing rain storms off and on through the night. The anchor held firm. Mike was up several times in the night to check boat conditions and then in a rain storm to catch water in solar showers and to refill our tanks. We have one tank that holds ~800L (~200 Gal) of water. On a sailboat, sources of fresh water are always a concern so a good rain storm is always welcome. Mike washed down the decks yesterday and then set up the collection system before dark. He can test the water and when it is clean enough, the rain washes down the deck, gets diverted by the collection system and into a hose straight into our water tanks. We haven’t really been keeping track yet but we estimate we use about 4-5 gallons a day in total between showers, drinking, cooking and dishes.

Today was a good day to do some school work catch up, reading and exchanged boat tours with Eden and Celeste from Bliss, the kid boat next to us. We took all 4 kids for a few hours then we did a boat swap. Turns out they had some extra cell data so we all piled on board for kids to watch a movie and Tina was able to get somewhat caught up on work while Mike, Harry, and Darlynne talked about cruising destinations, boat systems, and life aboard! Thanks Bliss!

We had a quiet evening and are off to bed, with not-so-quiet winds still howling 30+ knots. Should start to back off a little tomorrow. Sorry no photos today!

Day 19 – a windy day

Day 19 – A windy day in the Bahamas – Thursday – 12/20/18

We were all hunkered down ready for the start of the “bad weather” but we ended up with a gorgeous sunny, though very windy, day. It was still nice and warm so kids could swim, play on the SUP’s and have fun swinging off the neighbor’s boat using their spinnaker pole. We got permission from the private property owner to use their docks and go for a long walk back to the ruins to explore further. All the kids would have stayed all day! We only have 4 boats anchored here but they are all such nice people and it is so fun to have 1 other ‘kid boat’. Henry and Emma both got to practice their radio skills calling over to Eden and Celeste on S/V Bliss.

It doesn’t feel much like Christmas when wearing a bathing suit in warm weather. The kids do have a little tree with a count-down on it and they sure enjoy their Advent chocolate calendar each morning. This morning they got to decorate their Gingerbread house (At last! They have been asking to every day since we got it in Stuart!). I must admit I can barely remember the presents I bought and wrapped in November and have packed away somewhere on this boat. Tonight we watched the 1969 version of Frosty the Snowman. Supposedly we will be getting some slightly ‘frostier’ temperatures this weekend – 55F in the mornings?! We’ll see!

Day 18 – Bahamas!

Day 18 – All checked in. Wednesday 12/19/18

We are now *officially* here. We checked in with customs and immigration this morning. Kevin was the nicest agent ever. Prompt, polite, and quick. Coming through the channel to the dock we got a bit of a nature display – a spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and a heron swooped in to fish in the shallows.

While tied up for customs and fuel, the dock staff let us leave the boat to walk around town. The island is only 2 streets wide in places! We saw the school, churches, and got a look across a narrow channel to the island of Eleuthera where we may be headed next.

On the way back we stopped briefly at “Meeks Patch” where we walked on our first white sand beach of the trip. Tina and Mike swam all the way back to the boat!

Tonight we’re at Royal Island anchorage again, with it’s rare “all around” protection, to wait out a few days of rough weather. We’re here with 3 other boats so far, one of which is a “kid boat” with girls 8 and 11. Our evening excursion took us to shore to tour old ruins and the kids made fast friends. It should be a fun few days!

A few amusing thoughts from our passage:

– Sailing to the Bahamas is a worthy adventure, but it is an extremely slow way to get to locations that are only a 30-40 minute flight away from Miami.

– 3 days is a long time to go without a shower.

– Kids favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner in rough seas? Saltines and water.

– Longest Henry has ever gone with out eating? 1.5 days crossing the gulf stream.

– Why are ponytails required for sailing? Keeping clean while seasick! (ick!)

– Sailing is the goal, but motoring is what sailors do when the wind dies and they still have 24 hours of travel ahead of them.

Day 17b – We made it!

Day 17 – 12/18/18 – Tuesday.

WE MADE IT! It’s hard to relate the relief & joy we all felt when our anchor dropped into the sand at Royal Island, Bahamas tonight. We had an easy calm day of fast motorsailing in calm seas, arriving shortly before dark. Our arrival gift was a sunset resembling a fireworks show. We are inside a tiny harbor with only 3 other boats and full protection from all directions and are looking forward to a flat calm night with hours of (hopefully) undisturbed sleep!! A huge butterfly just joined us in the cockpit after our family story time to end the day. What a nice welcome to the Bahamas!

We will continue in the morning to the nearby town of Spanish wells to do our customs and immigration check in. We didn’t have enough daylight to make it that last 5 miles today.

Took us 42hrs in total. The first 26hrs crossing Gulf stream and then the Bahama Banks. Then we had our emergency anchoring for 6hrs at Chubb Cay and today continued another 9hrs after clearing our seaweed issue. 213.4 miles total with an average speed of over 6 knots (much faster than Mandolin!).

Now it’s time for sleep!

Day 17a – arriving in Bahamas

Hullo from the Bahamas!!!! The crew of Amel all have smiles today. It has been a long passage but conditions have improved tremendously. Currently motoring with the main up for stability. Wind light. Sun shining.

The Gulf Stream crossing was much rougher then predicted. Boat tossed around. Kids vomited through the night. I dealt with them while mike had steered in big waves. Much better once we got to the banks. Lots of sleeping yesterday by kids. They are such AMAZING troopers. Great attitudes the whole way. Feel so bad they were sick but so proud of how they handled it.

Last night we caught seaweed on prop. Had to anchor in dark at 1am. Mike dove this morning, cleared it and we are continuing to spanish wells to check in. 7 hrs to go….

Have a Bahamian SIM card in order to use data and post this!

Day 15 – Here we go!

Day 15 – Here we go!! – Sunday 12/16/18

What a whirlwind couple of days. My brain just can’t keep up with the pace of change…..but here we are….packing up the boat and preparing to start our open water journey at midnight tonight. We will be in motion for 43hrs. We will depart Fort Lauderdale at midnight, head east through the night to enter the Bahama banks around noon tomorrow – then continue sailing for another 12hr in only 10-20ft of water, but no land visible. Very cool to experience this in the daytime to look for conch and sea life. Then more deep water sailing through Monday night and should be anchored in Spanish Wells sometime Tuesday afternoon. There are several good island anchorages to bail out along the way if we need to.

Weather forecast is for 2-3 foot seas, Winds under 12knots in gulf stream through Wednesday night. Though perhaps 15knot at dawn tomorrow from NW. Overall, more motoring than sailing we predict.

I was curious how the kids were doing. I tried sitting with Henry and Emma and asking them my friend Ann’s favourite question “So how do you FEEL about this?!”. I didn’t get much back except “kinda excited, a little scared” and “can we go play now?!”. I’d say they are continuing with their happy go lucky life as children where life is often just fine and they have fun in the moment.

Me on the other hand. A whole ‘nother story. My momma bear protection hormones are at elevated levels causing havoc in my body. Yes – I have done many multi-day trip at sea on Mandolin with Mike….it was never an issue before but now I have 2 cubs to care for…that often get seasick….and other then motor on the ICW we haven’t even sailed in last 10 days. I’m headachy, tired, and probably the most nervous crew on board. I bought out the drugstore on seasickness medicine and natural remedies…and have a healthy supply of saltines and gingerale for Henry.

The option to take this weather window was made possible by Mike’s awesome friend Aaron Mullins who lives nearby. We got to have lunch with him, Kara and Fox (3) and baby Hart (7 mo). He also bought and delivered us some engine oil, loaned us a grinder to adjust an injector bracket to fit correctly, and most importantly he offered to take the engine parts that need to be rebuilt to the machine shop tomorrow morning. Mike got to return the favor in part by washing a poo-tastrophe out of Aaron’s shirt while he changed Hart’s very full diaper! Aaron and Kara are amazing parents and also juggle her teaching, and his termite research work and his PhD. Coincidence: they were married on Smith Mountain Lake in VA, the same inland lake where the Whites found and purchased Amel. It’s a small world!

We need to get off the laptop and finish getting ready. Tina is amazing: she has 43hr of food at our fingertips, the settee area will be made up into all beds for easy sleeping in the most comfortable part of the boat. We will be on shifts (we used to do 2hr on, 2hr off…but will just see how it goes). Not sure if kids will get up at midnight or just sleep through it all. Hope they do ok when they realize there is no land in sight….

There might be some facebook updates we can get to friends through our satellite InReach text system. If not…hopefully you hear from us again by Wednesday IF our Bahamian SIM card works as it should, otherwise no news is good news till we find wifi.

Tina and Mike

Day 14 – Progress and parade

Day 14 – Saturday – 12/15/18

Progress was made, we are happy to report! The morning had hiccups but the day ended well.

We are anchored in Sunset Lake (Fort Lauderdale) after motoring (yes motoring…with a functional engine!) for about 5 hrs. We also stumbled into some fun, as Fort Lauderdale’s HUGE holiday boat parade is tonight of all nights. We are anchored right beside all the grandstands they set up for land lubbers to view the parade. Police have closed the ICW and all drawbridges will be locked open. We strung our Christmas lights around the cockpit and have front row seating and no crowds! We’ve been told this is the 6^th biggest one in the USA. Woohoo! Time to get into the Christmas spirit.

It has been exactly 2 weeks since we left CO. On one hand we can’t believe we’ve only made it as far as Ft. Lauderdale (it’s less than a 2hr drive from Indiantown Marina!)….on the other hand….when we think the boat was on the hard, has only been ‘splashed’ for 11 days, we’ve been on the move for 5 days, dealt with engine crisis yesterday, took a day to celebrate xmas with Dad, and provisioned for 3 months then stored it all. That’s a lot. When in CO, we wouldn’t have thought it would take this long!

The day started with much rethinking of the engine, plans, what could be broken, what is the right path forward, which pump to prioritize on rebuild, should we remove the one on the engine but leave us disabled for many days. We had a rental car reserved for 9am to get the spare high pressure injection pump taken to Ft. Lauderdale to be rebuilt. We felt the pressure of the rebuild shop’s special 9-noon weekend hours. But then debated if Mike could rebuild seals himself – but we lacked the seals, and a garage/machine shop to work in. So, in the end, we rushed to shore, rushed to rental car. But…. then got stuck in long line, big delays, got a car that was blocked in, drove away only to discover that a back door didn’t open! Ugh – so much time lost. Talked to rebuild guy – he wasn’t actually going to start working on the pump till Monday at 7am anyway…so we bailed on the rental car, got a refund, and were back at the boat at 10:30am…having just gone in another circle. (That’s how yesterday started too!!). We’ll just drop that pump off some other way on Monday morning.

We made a quick decision to pick up anchor and try motoring south to test out the engine. Skies were dark with rain, but winds were light. We stopped many times to turn engine off and check levels – which were not increasing – a very good sign! We cleared a dozen drawbridges, had fun ‘meeting’ new boating friends as we traveled in a pack trying to make the bridge openings together. One boat even threw us a whiffle ball with a message and present inside. Shark teeth for the kids! What fun. Mike did most of the steering inside the fully enclosed cockpit today (what a nice treat – on Mandolin we were fully exposed to the elements). There was lots of rain and drizzle but light wind and warm weather. Tina and the kids did the cooking, the dishes and some real ‘school’ time. They were treated to a movie during the worst of the rain.

This adventure has reinforced some friendships and amazing how many new connections we have made. During the engine crisis, we often had Reid (boat owner) on the case by phone or text, Mike had phone support from his awesome Uncle Dan in Nebraska all day long (diesel mechanic and farmer), Jaime was so helpful (Reid’s oldest son and also sailor) and then we started getting offers from so many other people that had friends or family also knowledgeable in engines. The love and outpouring of support was impressive. Today Mike spoke with Tom Fulker, the father of one of Mike’s colleagues from CLEER and a former chief engineer of offshore fishing boats in Alaska and a former sailboat owner as well. He was great to brainstorm with and helped us with new root cause understanding. It seems as though the bad injector might have been our culprit… leaking so badly that it flooded fuel past the piston rings while running. Runaway diesels are more common than we knew, it seems! Today’s long successful run of the engine with it’s new injectors went well with no increase in levels was a great sign.

Now we are off to enjoy the boat parade and tomorrow will assess weather and readiness for a potential crossing in the next few days. Mike would like to add that , in recent days, he really has helped with these updates… he’s just not equipped with Facebook to take much credit.

Day 13 – 13th says it all…

Day 13 – Friday – 12/14/18

Wow…Day 13…that explains it all!! I’m not superstitious….but…..

Today did not go as planned. We are right back where we started. Sometimes that happens on a boat. Often cruisers will joke “our plans are written in jello”. Well that sums up today.

This morning – after motoring south into 20knot winds gusting higher, for only 15min – the engine started revving uncontrollably. By chance – I just happened to be beside Mike. He screamed ”turn it off – now now now”…the controls were near me but were not responding. “Emergency, emergency” he yelled. I had no idea what was happening except the engine was screeching at an unbearable decibel level. Mike lifted up the Cockpit floor (which is the hatch to the engine bay)….where he pulled the backup engine shut down cable (nicknamed the “kill switch”)….it did nothing. Now the heavy cockpit floor is manually being held (no time in crisis to tie it off) – So I grab the heavy hatch behind me while still trying to steer us forward. So Mike was free to move around and figure out a solution. Mike, in desperation to get this engine off, picked up his street shoe and turned it upside down over the engine air intake. It worked! Quiet at last…except for the howling winds, white cap waves and us drifting in a narrow ICW channel. Mike dashed forward to drop the anchor…right in the middle of the channel!

So…we were floating…we were safe….kids were awesome and sat in the salon taking care of themselves while all this happened. The first thing out of Emma’s mouth was “is our trip to the Bahamas cancelled?”. Hopefully no…but delayed yes….

We shamelessly called Tow Boat US having just paid for the “unlimited towing” option just in case of running aground somewhere. Truthfully, we could have easily sailed back 1 mile to the anchorage with the prevailing winds of the day, but hey… when professional assistance is free, why not call! We should mention that the White’s have never been towed in 5yr owning the boat…sadly we broke their record on day 13….yes day 13.

To sum up the rest of the day…Mike spent a hot 6.5hrs hunched over and around the hot engine investigating/fixing and generally covering himself from head to toe in diesel oil and sweat. I stayed on the boat as his support person…clean enough to get what he needed from inside the boat. Susan and Greg, the angels of the day, came and picked up Henry and Emma (who were doing jumping jacks at the thought of having Susan and Greg to themselves for the day!). The 4 of them went off exploring a local wildlife refuge to see alligators, turtles, great blue heron….then had fun in the pool…got to watch a movie. Totally awesome day. Mike and I joined them all for dinner (2 homecooked meals now!) and then shuttled us all back to the boat this evening.

So….now to see what tomorrow brings! This is end of tonight’s blog….for those techie’s out there wondering “so what is wrong with the engine?”…I now pass the laptop to Mike for the full description. The rest of you may want to say goodnight at this point!

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Here’s Mike:

Google “runaway diesel” and you’ll get a good Wikipedia description of what was going on in our lives today. Remember that upcoming weather window to Bahamas? Forget about it!

Our low pressure fuel pump or, more likely, our high pressure injection pump leaked fuel into the engine’s oil and overfilled the crankcase until a fuel/oil mixture spilled out the top and into the air intake. With unlimited fuel now pouring in, the engine did as it pleased until my upside down shoe’s insole choked it off. Thanks to Peter and Elisabeth Stoffel who lived through this same issue 15 years ago, I was more prepared than I would have been to react, though I’m not sure Peter used a shoe! Luckily this all only lasted maybe 20 seconds though it felt like so much longer. Much longer than that and the engine could have failed completely.

While the warm Florida sun and 150 degree engine made for hot work, we had what we needed. Low pressure pump was changed, 2 gallons of oil/fuel were pumped out, one gallon of fresh oil replaced, and we restarted and found a new issue. One fuel injector also failed, causing a terribly loud engine knock after we got the restarted, but luckily Reid had just bought some spare injectors which were pressed into service. With new injectors the engine is running again – though with the root cause not solved just yet. Progress would have been slower if not for teachers Greg and Susan.

Now it’s time to find and fix that that faulty injector pump and make sure it doesn’t leak into the crankcase again. I’ve rented a car for the morning and we’re taking an old/failed injector pump that was stored on the boat to Fort Lauderdale to be rebuilt ASAP so that we can swap it on early next week. We’ll then likely get the one that caused today’s adventure rebuilt as well, just in case. We could get them both fixed faster by dropping them off at the same time in Lauderdale tomorrow, but that would leave us anchored out with no engine and no backup battery charging possibly for 4 straight days. It’s just not worth the risk in our minds.